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An ICBC safety review of the bridge concludes motorists drive too fast, particularly over the dangerous curved section, and recommends pursuit of various measures, including centre lane closures in off-peak hours, a thin median barrier or a three-lane counterflow system, and fixed cameras targeting speeders.
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Surrey resident John Heida dies when another vehicle crosses the bridge centre line and hits his car head-on. Friends launch a campaign for a safer bridge.
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Sarfraz and Imran Khan, two brothers from Surrey, die when their car loses control and crosses the centre line, hitting an oncoming taxi.
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TransLink directors vote to draw up preliminary designs for a median barrier.
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Two more people die and five are injured in a head-on crash linked to speed. TransLink chair Doug McCallum vows to have a median barrier in place within a year.
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TransLink board gives approval in principle to spend $5 million to build a centre barrier. The project is to be expedited and complete by year end.
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TransLink directors are told the median can't be in place before 2006 or even 2007 because bridge upgrades are needed first. A staff report warns putting a barrier on the bridge – which is already much narrower than national standards for new spans – will be difficult and risky. Directors vote to implement a series of temporary safety measures while upgrades and studies proceed.
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Overnight closures of the centre lanes begin from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. in a bid to prevent late-night crashes, which had been responsible for nearly all deaths to that point. TransLink also cuts the speed limit to 50 km/h from 60 and installs flexible reflective posts down the centre line to try to keep drivers in their own lanes.
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Four people from Surrey and Abbotsford die in a crash in the afternoon rush hour.
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Province unveils Gateway program to twin Port Mann Bridge by 2013, leaving the Pattullo as free untolled alternative. TransLink officials fear Port Mann tolls will add traffic and danger on the Pattullo, particularly if the province erects signs on Highway 1 advertising the free route.
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Burnaby woman Janette Ong dies in a multi-car pile-up. TransLink officials say median barrier remains a year to 18 months away because rehabilitation work is needed before a barrier can be added to the deck.
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Surrey City Council calls for installation of photo radar cameras on the Pattullo to slow motorists down. The proposal gets initial support from RCMP and transportation minister Kevin Falcon.
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TransLink's board votes in favour of installing automated cameras on the Pattullo. Solicitor General John Les rejects the idea, saying B.C. Liberals won't reintroduce photo radar, which they scrapped to keep an election promise in 2001.
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Two crashes on the bridge in four days – one fatal and both linked to speed – prompt more questions and demands for action, including speed ticket cameras.
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Premier Gordon Campbell said he believes policing, not cameras, is the best way to slow down motorists on the Pattullo.
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A multi-agency study begins to examine future strategies to replace the Pattullo with a new bridge. Preliminary findings are expected sometime in 2007.
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TransLink's board approves spending more than $20 million to continue upgrade and rehabilitation work on the Knight and Pattullo bridges in 2007.
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A head-on crash on the bridge kills a New Westminster woman and injures a Surrey man. The death brings to 20 the number of fatalities on the bridge or its approaches since 1990. Police officers from both Surrey and New Westminster call for introduction of automated cameras on the bridge, saying they would save lives. New West police say they are unable to stop speeders on their side because of safety concerns. Surrey RCMP ticketed 3,000 drivers in 2006 but high speeds persist.
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TransLink tries again to find a contractor that can remove the asbestos-contaminated asphalt on the bridge deck and repave it. A clear picture of how safe the concrete deck won't emerge until the asphalt comes off.
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TransLink's new appointed board rejects options for short-term fixes for the Pattullo, which include reducing it to three lanes with a counterflow system like the Lions Gate Bridge, or else keeping four lanes and installing a centre median. The four-lane option would require banning truck traffic – which the provincial government opposed. A TransLink report predicted a truck-free bridge with four narrower lanes wouldn't mean any loss of capacity because more smaller vehicles would use it.
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Consultants advise against the use of the old Pattullo Bridge along with a new twin, saying it will be cheaper and more reliable for the long term to build an all-new six-lane bridge. A rehabilitated Pattullo would be good for at most 50 years. TransLink's CEO and board chair decide to build a new bridge – financed by tolls – and dismantle the existing one.
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Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts says new toll bridges over the Fraser should include one untolled lane to provide a free alternative and avoid congestion from motorists diverting to the Alex Fraser.
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A fire in the wooden supports of the Pattullo's Surrey on-ramp knocks the bridge out of service for two weeks.
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Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon vows to look for ways to rebuild the Pattullo without tolling it. Falcon said he was relieved TransLink ended years of "dithering" and made the decision to build a new bridge.
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Pattullo repaving and asbestos removal finally proceeds. Bridge deck deemed safe for further use.
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Transportation Minister Shirley Bond lists the Alex Fraser Bridge as the free alternative when the new tolled Port Mann Bridge opens in 2013. She downplays fears that means the Pattullo will be tolled, adding she, too, wants to keep it free. NDP calls a tolled Pattullo with the Alex Fraser as a free alternative unacceptable.
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TransLink public meetings planned on new bridge approach designs are postponed indefinitely.
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Mayor Watts says "fair tolling" – where bridges are tolled equally not in just one part of the region – should be among the new mechanisms for long-term financing of TransLink.
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TransLink says bridge design open houses are on hold because the province wants to re-examine alternatives to building a new bridge, which could avert the need for tolls.
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TransLink concludes it still prefers to build a new six-lane bridge.